This is my 77 dodge w-200 pickup, i bought it in stock condition with a plow on it for $400 right after i graduated high school in 2004. The truck was far from road worthy when i got it but fresh out of school and working full time as a auto mechanic, i wasted no time working on getting it on the road. The truck ran and moved but had no brakes, so i took care of that first by replacing all the brake lines, front calipers, rear wheel cylinders, and all the brake hoses.
After i fixed the brakes i began shopping for lift kits, i soon found out that four wheel parts wholesalers was the place to shop. I gave them a call and in no time i had a 5 inch superlift coming to my front door. After work I installed the lift in my driveway working until two sometimes three o'clock in the morning for four days straight. The only air tool i had was an impact gun, the rest were all just wrenchs and sockets. All the bolts were very rusty and the only source of heat i had was a propane torch. so if i ran into a bolt that was rusted solid i took out the little torch and begain heating. It took about 15-20 minutes to heat a nut hot enough to free it and most of them i had to wrench off. so now you can see why it took 4 days of hard work to complete this lift install.
The truck had brakes and the lift was in, now i needed rims and tires. Working as a mechanic at a shop that did a lot of tire work and an american racing authorized dealer i needed to go no further. My boss and i looked through the wheel catalog and picked out the set of wheels that are on the truck now. I found a set of 33x12.50R16.5 cooper discoverer stt radials that were collecting dust in the back of the shop so i picked them up real cheap, employee discounts are great aren't they.
This truck rolled of the assembly line with a 318 2bbl, 727 tranny, dana 60 full floating rear axle, dana 44 axle up front, as for the transfer case im not sure what it is because i never bothered to check but i know it is has a cast iron case and is AWD. Being an AWD truck sometimes it really sucks to drive on dry roads but i'll change that someday. That tiny 2bbl was quickly swapped out for an edlebrock 4bbl 650cfm electric choke carb and a edlebrock performer intake. The exhaust is breathin easy through the headman full length headers, 2 1/4 inch pipes that lead to two thrush glasspacks and then dumps out the sides in front of the rear wheels.
Did i mention that this truck also came factory with no power steering. I guess it's not that bad, thats one less thing i have to worry about leaking.
Here's a shot of the back end, yes that's a ford bumper it's all i could find.
This is a pic of the size tire i want to put on the truck. It's a 14.5/36.5-16.5LT, this size is not available anymore so i will use this tire as a spare. I'll most likely go with 36x13.50R16.5 super swamper irok radial.
I have many plans for this rig so give me ideas and tell me what you think of it, and yes i will fix the rot...someday.
I'm in the process of shopping for new tires, i want 36 or 37 inch super swampers but i can't decide on what width tire or which kind of super swamper to get. Also i have never driven a truck with bias ply tires, so i don't know how they ride or handle, the only thing i have heard about them is that they suck, but at the same time i don't really like the look of any super swamper radials. If anyone has any info on what tire i should get please feel free to let me know. basically i just want a tire that looks very aggresive, does good in mud and snow, and so i can drive on the streets around town without the truck shaking me to death, and the louder the better.
